red S C U L P T U R E

The river of my creative life winds along. OK, so I went back up the mountain to Penland for the 4th of July and some unknown wierdness forced me to buy 3 more boxes of the RED clay? It was cheap after all. Back in the studio at home, glazing beckons. But, I'll be glazing for good ole tried and true high fire reduction, no WOOD no SALT, no romance, no inspiration. SHIT, what can i do so that the procrastination is less obvious. I think to myself, lots of people handbuild with earthenware, maybe I'll play with a bit while I'm teaching a lesson with someone who is working with the red mess anyway, no real commitment. Much to my astonishment this odd craggy and gritty clay is amazingly forgiving and plastic and healing and workable, not at all the properties I expected. From there I began to make a seed pod like form which morphed into a rattle (utilitarianism rarely escapes me). So, next I decide I'll offer a rattle making workshop, mind you I've never offered a workshop in my studio and have made ONE rattle at this point!!!! Since I offered the workshop I decided to explore and work out some of the kinks and technical issues with these forms, I made 10 the next day. They are hollowed forms, some thrown, some scooped out, some slab built. This R E D clay and it's amazing workability is enticing me, it was hard sell, I was downright obnoxious with my disdain for it at Penland earlier this summer. Then I begin to realize that I have been lulled and cajoled into S C U L P T U R E. Although I have a skilled hand in the clay, S CU L P T U R E is for artists, not craftspeople. It's scary how much I love these pieces and MY WORK these days.

Red M U D City

Somehow a box of red clay came home with me off the mountain. I worked with a student with it today. He loves it's rough and craggy darkness. I'm not a fan, or I have very little experience with this material....I could be a fan (in some other lifetime). It was fun to teach someone new to throwing with this material. It really behaves much more passively than does porcelain. This clay is open, it sounds hollow to me, and feels that way to. It is easily manipulated. This batch was S O F T as well. Setting it out overnight in a horse shoe wouldn't dry it enough. It is beautiful and charming somehow to work with. I'm much less tolerant of it's slip left coating too many things in the studio. White slip encrusted on everything,OK ,red slip, gotta go! Why is that I wonder. Dirt's dirt. It doesn't matter what color it is!